


Five of Daniel's Smiles

by theremin



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28953330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theremin/pseuds/theremin
Summary: Johnny looks at Daniel.
Relationships: Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence
Comments: 31
Kudos: 176





	Five of Daniel's Smiles

1.

One day Johnny looks at Daniel and his eyes linger. His body is thin, more lean and wiry than skinny, and has a grace unique among the other gawky teenage boys in his class, that he hangs out with. His eyes are bright, but his smile is brighter. His teeth are a little rabbity but in a charming way, Guys shouldn't look like that when they smiled. It stirs a feeling, and the feeling feels like violence. 

2\. 

The 80's pass, with its kick ass concerts and perm haired babes and ripped denim, and the 90's arrive and Johnny feels out of place. He's not a champion. He's not the next Chuck Norris. He drifts from one shitty job to the next, but doesn't really admit to himself for another decade that his life is going nowhere. By the early noughties he just feels tired. His friends have moved on. Daniel is not in his life, but he throws a cold shadow. In his most pathetic moments (a crowded field), he blames Daniel LaRusso for everything wrong with his life. The first time he sees one of his stupid ads he pulls over, abrupt, other drivers honking angrily at him, mouth falling open before it begins to swear. 

Then one day, he sees the piece of shit in real life. He's pushing a stroller, alone, cooing at a baby. Looking like some emasculated boring fucking suburban loser. He's no longer wiry, he's filled out, grown up, and even though it's not true Johnny thinks, “chubby”. Two things stop Johnny from laughing. Reason one: only a few months earlier he had become a father himself, and he'd seen the kid exactly twice since. Little Robby has his eyes, strong little fists, and a fucking bitch mess of a mom that Johnny can't stand being around. Of fucking course Saint Daniel LaRusso has to show up with some Dad of the Year spectacle. It makes a fist clench around his heart. And... reason two: Daniel leans in, and smiles his bright, white, smile, his eyes shine and look adoringly, lovingly, at his baby. In a flash he looks so much like the boy he was as well as the man he is Johnny's mouth runs dry and his heart starts hammering in his chest. That piece of _shit_.

3\. 

When they talk, for the first time in decades, Johnny is having a hideous day, and he's trying to Secret Agent it, in and out of the LaRusso car dealership before the boss shows, but there's a bonsai tree and some overly enthustiastic employees (is the chubby little fucker running a cult?) and before he knows it, there he is, smiling and smiling. A car salesman smile. He really chose the right job. A job for a phony, a scammer, a schemer, like he's been his whole life. Johnny tastes violence.

4\. 

Life is a funny fucking thing. You only get so many years on this planet, and they can be glorious or they can be so god fucking awful you truly wonder about driving your car off a cliff to a Twisted Sister riff, but you stop yourself because you couldn't do that to your car, and sometimes it can throw a huge fucking curve ball right at you. He and Daniel are friends. Worse than that, they're probably each other's best friend. Ever since they re-entered each others orbit there hasn't only been the circle, it's been the pull, inescapable, thrilling and aggravating in equal measure. Until the day they go ahead and start their own dojo and it turns into something else. And it's great, it's amazing, when they're not fighting each other their styles mesh so well it's terrifying. Daniel is great at the spiritual bullshit that keeps the kids from being assholes to each other and yeah, he's awesome on the defense, but Johnny encourages aggression, confidence. Their students thrive and so does their business (no fucking free lunches on Johnny’s watch). But Daniel's marriage withers, his wife probably rightly being mad at the way he's blown up his job, his network (Daniel tells him some of the stupid hot headed shit he's done and Johnny laughs with a crooked mouth, Saint Daniel really always was the petty little bitch he knew him to be), following his teenage dreams rather than being an adult, centering his family, his relationship. Johnny gets it. But he kind of doesn't give a shit, because he's fucking happy. Amanda LaRusso has been happy for decades, it's time she learned to share. But she doesn't – she kicks him out, takes out a separation, and Daniel comes over to Johnny's apartment with an overnight bag and a pitiful look and if Johnny wasn't a real fucking man he would have given him a hug. Daniel sleeps on the sofa, they work on lesson plans, they watch TV, but there's a sadness there, and as much as he wishes he didn't Johnny knows that sadness. He knows how to fix it, too, and one night they're both sitting on the floor, backs against the sofa, empty beer bottles lined up around them like soldiers. 

Daniel kind of sucks at being cheered up, so Johnny, drunk and reckless, decides to throw him a curve ball.

“I'll tell you a secret,” he drawls. That gets the mopey bastard's attention, he looks up at him, head lolling over to his shoulder. “when we were kids, when we were in school? You and me?”

“Yeah?”

“I used to think you were hot. Like a chick.” He laughs.

Daniel does not laugh. “What?”

“Yeah, with, the eyes, and the, the fucking hair. The eighties, right?”

“Are- wait, what are you even saying right now? You- are you saying you had a _crush_ on me?”

Johnny frowns, put out. “What the fuck? No? Why would you even go there, you homo. I thought you were an asshole, and I was right.”

“But you just said-”

“I _said_ I thought you were hot.”

“Am I having a stroke?”

 _”Like a chick,”_ Johnny says slowly, so he'll get it.

Daniel still looks like he's struggling. “Are you saying you're bi or-”

Johnny groans. “God, forget I said anything, why do you always have to make everything weird?”

“ _I'm_ making things weird? What does it mean? What does it mean, you thought I was hot?” Daniel's eyes widen. “Do you think I'm hot now?”

Johnny snorts. “No. You got old, man.”

“Fuck you, we're the same age!”

“Yeah, but I look the same.”

“Uh, okay,” Daniel says a little sarcastically, taking a pull off his bottle.

“Well, no, I mean, I know I look older, but I still basically look the same. You were pretty, I never was. Can't lose what you never had.”

There's a silence, but Johnny doesn't feel uncomfortable, almost forgets all about what they were talking about, is about to suggest they find a Chuck Norris movie to watch when Daniel speaks again.

“Was that why you were so shitty to me?”

“Huh?”

“Because you had a- because you were into me, or whatever you want to call it?”

“Huh,” Johnny says, drinks and thinks. It's kind of hard to, he feels pretty hazy. He had never thought about it like that before. Could that be true? No way. Suddenly an old, ancient memory bubbles to the surface, about a dream he'd had, years and years ago, when he was still young and the world was still new and forever changed for Daniel LaRusso entering it. It hadn't been like a sex dream or anything mega gay like that, but he had been with Daniel in the dream, just- touching him, stroking fingers over his face, into his hair, down his neck. And Daniel had liked it, hadn't said anything, had just let him, and smiled at him, bright like a star. He'd woken up with a raging boner and a terrible mood. “maybe it was a factor?” he says honestly. 

Daniel laughs then. “Unbelievable.”

And then he really laughs, and Johnny laughs too, and it's been a while since Daniel laughed and his face lights up and Johnny's laugh dies in his throat. Because when Daniel smiles like this, damn him, all bright and all shy, he _is_ pretty, the years fall away and the old violence stirs but it doesn't feel so violent anymore – it feels fond. He guesses it's because they're friends now. How about that?

“What?” Daniel asks him and Johnny can only shake his head. “Here, I'm gonna, I'm uh,” he's pretty drunk too, Johnny realizes, but he's a quiet drunk, the kind that goes off in a corner and grins until sleep claims them, but he's clearly on a mission now, supporting himself on the sofa with an arm. “I'm gonna make your wildest dreams come true.”

Daniel places his arm across a sofa cushion, behind Johnny's head, and leans on a knee, his other leg gracelessly splayed out behind him. Johnny looks up at him, his face close, his smile wide, if only it hadn't been for that he might have had the wherewithal to push him away, tell him to fuck off. Instead, he only makes a little strangled noise when Daniel kisses him, a chaste sort of kiss, playful, he can feel the outline of that smile against his lips. Maybe Daniel expects him to throw him across the room, because he looks both surprised and confused when he pulls away, but he doesn't actually sit back down or get up either, and Johnny's not sure who moves first but then they're kissing again.

Life is a funny fucking thing.

5\. 

Johnny wakes up and reaches out but the bed is empty. He frowns, groans. What the fuck. What time is it? He squints as rays of sunshine seep through the openings in the curtains, tries to focus on his digital clock. Five forty five. You have got to be kidding. He tries to go back to sleep but gives up. How pathetic. As if he's not used to sleeping alone? Since when? He sighs, pulls on pajama pants and slippers, walks outside and into the impeccable Japanese style garden, where Daniel is doing slow and graceful tai chi. 

“Seriously? It's not even fucking six in the morning?”

“Join me?”

“No,” Johnny says.

“It'll do you good.”

“Would do me good if you came back to bed,” Johnny shoots back. He sits down on the warm stone steps, knowing full well he's already lost this argument.

“You can watch,” Daniel says. “one day, you'll try it.”

“I'll watch,” Johnny agrees, and Daniel smiles at him, and it's bright, it's radiant.

**Author's Note:**

> Posted this to [my tumblr](http://iamtheremin.tumblr.com) but I don't hate it so in the archive it goes too!


End file.
